Don't Cut Yourself Short

Out of context is never a good thing.

A couple of quick suggestions based upon my experiences scanning things at the Family History Library while on my annual group trip.

The first image here is from the christening entry of Thomas Frame in Carlisle, England. It shows a mistake not to make while making digital copies: taking ONLY what you want. There is no perspective on this at all. What year is it? The date may be difficult to read, what did the entry right before this one have for a year? What are the headings for? (note, I also made two scans of this record, the other one was done to lighten up the right hand side of the image.)

A better approach is to take a digital scan of the entire page, which is shown in the second image. This helps me to keep track of the actual source and gives me the location and the year of the entry, which is missing in the little snippet I made which only included Thomas' christening.

I also like to make a scan of the "title page" of the film as well after I've made the scans of the records in that series. This helps to keep me organized and know where the information was located.

I typically scan quite a few documents while in Salt Lake and this helps me to remember what is what. Usually what I do while there are "quick lookups" and things can run together very quickly.

Thomas Frame as shown in these posts is my wife's great-great-grandfather.

1877 Birth In Chicago

This is an entry from the 1877 Cook County, Illinois, birth register. The baby, was unnamed at the time of birth. A quick look at the other entries on the page indicated that the majority of births were apparently not registered at the time of birth. Always look at a record in context. In this case, that aspect of the record is not unusual.

The only real altering I did to the record was to cut just the bottom part of the image and split it in to two so that it would not be as wide. Obviously the yellow line was not on the original record either. I probably should have made a note that the line was added as a way to see where the record continued. When I copy images like this (which makes them easier to print and have the image be nice and readable and closer to the original size), I rarely copy just the entry.

There are quite a few clues here. What I should have done was to put the heading underneath the various entries so that others would know what the various things meant. Garabaldi is the name of the street where the family was living and where the birth took place. Without knowing what the heading was and given the few entries I copied, one might be tempted to think it meant something else. A few entries on the page in this column had "St" or "Ave" after the name making it a little more clear what the column was for had there been no heading. David Dodge was the doctor.

In an upcoming column of "Casefile Clues" we'll look at this document in more detail as part of a larger problem. This image was obtained on the pilot.familysearch.com site.

Death Certificate for Eleanor Rowell

This is part of the death certificate for Eleanor Rowell. Eleanor was born Eleanor Carlisle ca. 1814 in Whitehaven, Cumberland, England. She was married twice, first to Robert Frame and after his death to William Rowell. Notice she died in the Fusehill Workshose--more records to check. Unfortunately this will make tracing her children with Robert Frame even more difficult. I really only know what happened to one son, Thomas, who immigrated to Chicago, Illinois.

I'll be writing more about Eleanor in an upcoming "Casefile Clues" column for Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter.

Eleanor is my wife's 3rd great-grandmother.

William Frame born 1816 in Lancashire

I found this christening entry while I was in Salt Lake, using the IGI as my search tool.

This William Frame was born in 1816 and christened on July 21, 1816 at St. John's Church, Old Haymarket, Liverpool. The parents are John and Rebecca Frame who appear later in County Cumberland, The John and Rebecca Frame in County Cumberland appear to be the parents of Robert Frame who lived in Cumberland from at least 1841 until his death in the 1860s. Robert is known to be my wife's ancestor.

Robert Frame was born in Spain ca. 1814 (but is always indicated as a British subject) and I was hoping that the occupation of John would indicate he was in the service, which would explain a son being born overseas, but that did not happen. A brief history of the church located online gave me a few additional clues which I can follow.

I'll be updating readers of this in an upcoming "Casefile Clues" column. Stay tuned. Suggestions are welcomed---I need them.

Always Get Those Second Marriages

I'm a big fan of getting all the marriage records for any ancestor who was married more than once. This 1868 marriage record from the Parish Church at St. Mary's Church in Carlisle, Cumberland, England, is an excellent case in point.


Eleanor's first marriage to Robert Frame, nearly thirty years earlier, does provide any information on her parents, of course it does provide her maiden name of Carlisle as her marriage to Robert Frame was her first marriage.


It always pays to search all the marriage records of any ancestor.

This record came from the microfilm of the St. Mary's Church records at the Family History Library in Salt Lake.

Some Chicago Marriage Licenses on Family Search's Pilot Site

It seems like it is harder and harder to keep up with all the information available on Family Search's Pilot site.





Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, marriages are being added to the records site at Family Search. This is a work in progress, which is clearly indicated on the site.



It made it so easy to locate these records (which I admittedly already had). The marriages shown in this post are for Lewis Demars and Laura Noll in 1901 and for Mary Demar and William Frame Apgar in 1909. Lewis is the father of Mary. Mary and her husband are my wife's great-grandparents. William Apgar "evaporates" around 1918.

No going to the courthouse, no writing a letter, no paying a fee. This is really nice. Now I just have to have time to search for other family members and wait for the site to expand its offerings of these records.






Those who have time can volunteer to help with the indexing of records at Family Search as well. You do not have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to participate in the indexing program.

The Cook County, Illinois, marriage records currently online at Familysearch can be searched on their site.

At the time of this writing records on the site were from 1900 through 1920.

A Little More Framework in the Chicago City Directories

I've been doing a little more work on the family of Thomas and Elizabeth Frame in the Chicago City directories on Footnote.com.

Elizabeth is listed as "Mrs. Elizabeth Frame" who boards at 89 Cottage Grove Av. in 1869--see image. Thomas is not listed (and he's not in the 1870 Chicago census either).

Backtracking to 1868, Thomas appears, listed as a painter with a residence of 118 W Randolph.

Thomas nor Elizabeth appears in 1867 and this appears to be consisent with their 1870 census entry in Chicago, which indicates they had a child born in Pennsylvania ca. 1867.

There are no entries for Thomas or Elizabeth in the 1870 or 1871 directories. Thomas does appear as a painter again in 1872 apparently living between Barry and Cushing streets.

I need to follow through this family until their death in the 1910s. Also I need to map out these locations on contemporary maps. Mapquest is out of the question for these addresses that are prior to the renumbering and renaming that took place in the early 1900s.

Note:

All the current online city directories at Footnote.com can be searched here. You can browse the Chicago ones by year from 1843-1909. Feel free to post searching suggestions for the city directories here. You can see what other city directories Footnote.com has as well besides Chicago.You can also get a free trial with footnote.com if you do not already have a subscription.

Chicago City Directories on Footnote.com

I've been working with the Chicago city directories online at Footnote.com. Footnote currently has Chicago directories online from 1843-1909.

All the current online city directories at Footnote.com can be searched here.

Or you can browse by year from 1843-1909. Personally this is the approach I am using as the last name I am looking for is "Frame." I get too much "stuff" that I do not want searching for just this word alone.


This is the screen that is shown in the image. If you choose the desired year, a search box should show up on the bottom of the page where you can search that specific directory. The nice thing about browsing by year is that it allows you to either search just the specific year you have browsed to, or you can view image by image. The screen shown in this posting would allow the user to search all Chicago city directories at once.




The second screen image shows I have clicked on the 1866 directory and after some navigating on the page section (notice I am at set 289 - 300 of 1612). I want page 415, which starts at T. M. Fox [the names might not be overly clear as I shrunk the image just a little bit to fit on this post--it is BIGGER when you actually search them yourself].





Turns out, good old Thomas Frame was not in Chicago in 1866.





However, skipping to 1880 (only to find him for an illustration)---I know I need to go year by year. I did find two Thomas Frames. The image from the directory is shown in this post.



This is really fun. And for those who want to go "page by page," like I do, don't complain about how long it takes. It takes a while to roll through the microfilm too. The only thing is that this works best on a high speed connection.

Feel free to post searching suggestions for the city directories here. You can see what other city directories Footnote.com has as well besides Chicago.

You can get a free trial with footnote.com if you do not already have a subscription.

Working With Chicago City Directories on Footnote

The image here is from the 1879 Chicago City Directory which is available on Footnote.com.

The desired person here is Thomas Frame. I'm having a little difficulty finding him by searches. Looking for "Frame" brings up numerous hits that I do not want. I am having more luck browsing the images and finding Thomas manually.

Thomas and his wife Elizabeth were English immigrants to Chicago and I am hoping to use the city directories on Footnote.com to track their residence in the city in off-census years and to perhaps pinpoint their arrival in Chicago. I know they arrived before the fire, but do not have a specific year.

Using UK Census Records 1841-1871

For those who have never seen or used census records from the United Kingdom, we have posted samples from the family of Robert Frame in Carlisle, Cumberland, England on our site. Also included is an article discussing how these records were analyzed for clues to help us continue research on this family.
One of the Frame children emigrated to Chicago, Illinois, where many of his descendants live today.
I'd be interesting in hearing from anyone who is related to the Frame family, as Robert is my wife's 3rd great-grandfather.

Making a Case that Frames are Apgars

Work on my wife's family in Chicago has been challenging. The reasons are many. My one brick wall in Chicago, is a William Frame (aka William Apgar) born in Chicago in the 1880s, the son of English immigrants. For reasons that are unclear, he takes the name Apgar at the time of his marriage in 1909. This name has no significance in his family whatsoever.

A while back we posted an article where I outlined my "proof" that a 1910 census enumeration for William Frame is actually that of William Apgar. It shows how I outlined my case and organized the details to see if my conclusion was correct. Based upon what I knew then (and what I know now) I know I have the right person.

Of course, the problem is that William Frame/William Apgar disappears around 1918 and is never heard from again.